History

UCLA Sociology Chairs

  • 1948

     

    UCLA Department of Sociology established joint with Anthropology.

  • Harry Hoijer, anthropologist and linguist known for his work on Athabaskan languages and culture.

     

    1948-1952

  • 1952-1953

     

    Leonard Broom, sociologist whose early research focused on theinternment of Japanese Americans during WWII and co-authored one of the most successful early sociology textbooks.

  • Harry Hoijer (see above)

     

    1953-1954

  • 1954-1958

     

    Leonard Broom (see above)

  • Donald Cressey, sociologist who made innovative contributions to the study of organized crime and criminology more broadly.

     

    1958-1962

  • 1964-1965

    Department of Sociology becomes its own department.

  • Clement Meighan, archaeologist recognized for his work on the prehistory of Southern California and Baja Mexico.

     

    1962-1966

  • 1966-1968

     

    Ralph Turner, social psychologist known for pioneering work on role theory.

  • Richard T. Morris, sociologist who produced important scholarship on social stratification and urban race relations.

     

    1968-1970

  • 1970-1972

     

    Georges Sabagh, sociologist known for his work on ethnic enclaves and population studies.

  • Oscar Grusky, sociologist whose work focuses on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

     

    1972-1977

  • 1977-1978

     

    Donald Treiman, sociologist whose work focuses on social stratification and social mobility, particularly from a cross-national perspective, and more recently on internal migration in China.

  • Melvin Seeman, social psychologist who studied alienation and anomie.

     

    1978-1981

  • 1981-1983

     

    Emanuel A. Schegloff, sociologist credited with being one of the co-creators of the field of conversation analysis.

  • Philip Bonacich, sociologist who specializes in quantitative methods.

     

    1983-1987

  • 1987-1989

     

    Howard Freeman, medical sociologist who was also the founding director of UCLA’s Institute for Social Science Research.

  • Jeffrey Alexander, cultural sociologist known for his work in the areas of theory and politics.

     

    1989-1994

  • 1994-1995

     

    Ivan Szelenyi, sociologist whose work focuses on inequality in urban communities and the structural problems of capitalistic and socialistic societies.

  • Robert Emerson, qualitative sociologist known for his work on personal, interactional or social troubles, particularly on how they arise and how people react to them.

     

    1995-1999

  • 1999-2005

     

    Roger Waldinger, sociologist recognized for his work on the political and economic consequences of international migration.

  • David Lopez, sociologist who specializes in immigration and ethnicity and Latin American Studies.

     

    2005-2008

  • 2008-2012

     

    William Roy, sociologist whose work focuses on the history of commercial popular music in the 20th century, particularly on how musical genres work as social categories.

  • Stefan Timmermans, sociologist known for his ethnographic studies of the body, death and dying.

     

    2012-2015

  • 2015- 2017

     

    Darnell Hunt, sociologist whose work focuses on media, race and popular culture.

  • Megan Sweeney, sociologist whose research centers on the nature, determinants, and consequences of trends and differentials in family patterns.

     

    2017- 2020

  • 2020-2023

     

    Abigail Saguy, sociologist who studies how cultural schemas shape power relations and how subordinate groups are sometimes able to increase their control by creating new cultural meaning.